Fair enough. I just think ‘written off’ is strong. It’s my observation. I think a person can watch 10 games of a player and say It don’t see it’. Whatever happens with that player happens, but my position at the moment is that I don’t see a Manchester United player in him. Of course, his destiny is ultimately up to him. Just that, given the percentage of them that ultimately do not end up being good enough, I don’t think it’s that bad a thing to say.
Also, in our struggles, perhaps I am even more harsh than normal in situations like this. We need to be more ruthless and have suffered a lot of substandard players in recent years. I think our view to youth is a gift and a curse. We pride ourselves on giving chances, but then as we know, most aren’t good enough. While we are figuring that out, of course, we are playing a lot of players who aren’t good enough. We laugh at City for only really giving Foden a chance, but is that something to be mocked? Perhaps the club have decided that Foden level is the barto make it through, and when you look at their team, should it be knocked? They are a lot better than us, but we play academy kids who wouldn’t play for them. Which is fine, but they are second, and have won the last two titles, and we are 7th.
In general, I think we need to raise the standards in the team/squad, and I think we are a bit too nice in terms of our ideals, at least as a fan base. We make excuses for players all the time, but ultimately, the proof is in the pudding. We are not, and have not been very good. Perhaps this has made me withdraw from the traditional ‘play all the kids’ philosophy we love so much. By all means, play the best ones. I’m a Greenwood and Laird ‘fanboy’, I got ‘Greenwood #26’ on my United shirt as soon as it came out. I can’t wait to see Mejbri in the team. I’m not anti-academy, but I’m not in this ‘play Williams, Levitt, Garner, Ramazani and just about anyone‘ camp. The team needs help. We need kids who can come in and really help the team, but the sense I get on here is that it’s almost supposed to be the other way round in terms of what we can do for the kids.